Housing Authority slammed for lacking commitment

Two weeks after this newspaper highlighted their plight, residents in Valletta are still waiting for the Housing Authority to follow up on their application for the installation of an elevator in the government apartments under Scheme V. The original application had been submitted – together with a deposit of Lm20 per block – two years ago.

Asked to comment, Stefan Buontempo, spokesman for the Campaign for Social Housing Justice, told MaltaToday that the Housing Authority had to show more commitment when organising these kind of schemes.

"One has to bear in mind that most of the residents in the city are pensioners, which renders the installation of elevators a necessity rather than a mere luxury," he said.

Dr Buontempo further explained that while the existent Housing Authority policy whereby apartments with disabled people living in them were given preference was admirable, it was unwittingly giving rise to discrimination against other residents.

"Other people might not be suffering from a disability but are in equal need of assistance," he said.

He described the problem of lift installation as being "graver than it sounds".

"It is not really a matter of luxury or convenience, as some people seem to think," he said. "Valletta has an ageing population, most of the residents accepted these government apartments a long time ago when they were much younger. Today they are in their sixties and those living in the higher stories face a problem of mobility that they didn’t anticipate."

Alfred Portelli, who was minister for housing during the Labour administration, explained that the lifts installation scheme had been introduced by the Labour government in 1996.

"In the two years that Labour was in government the ministry had already identified which buildings were most in need of an elevator and where it was possible to install them," he said. "I cannot understand the delay on the part of the Housing Authority in pushing the scheme forward.

Why did years have to elapse before the first elevator was installed? And why are more years being allowed to pass before the rest of the applications are followed through? The Housing Authority should answer these questions for the sake of those people who are most in need of this facility, i.e. the many elderly who live in Valletta."

He added that had Labour continued in government the project would have been completed by now. Proof of this, he stated, lies in the amount of groundwork which the Housing Authority under the Labour administration had managed to finish within two years.

"We had identified some 500 government buildings in Malta and Gozo which could potentially take the installation of elevators. I still remember the hassle we went through in the Tac-Cawla area in Gozo, where at first it appeared installing the lift would be impossible due to the way the building was constructed. But then we found a way around that one as well," Mr Portelli concluded.

Dr Jean-Pierre Farrugia, Nationalist MP on the Valletta district, stressed that there were many considerations to take into account when discussing the lift issue.

"First and foremost, the residents have to realise that applying under the scheme does not automatically mean that the elevator will be installed," he said. "There are many buildings which cannot take the installation, mainly due to the way they were constructed. For instance, there is one particular case in Old Bakery Street where the apartment’s yard belongs to a third party. This means that before proceeding with the installation the Housing Authority must buy this third party’s property and go through a series of other bureaucratic hassles. These things naturally lead to delays."

Dr Farrugia added that delays had also been caused by the fact that the tenders were all awarded to the company with the cheapest bid, which meant that the same contractor was working on all the installations.

"The contractor probably does not have the manpower to cope with all the tenders," he said. "I believe there are some 18 installations being carried out at the moment. Maybe sub-contracting is an option. Or else, we simply have to face the fact that the cheapest bid is not always the most advantageous."